Dear Brentwoodians,
I was fortunate enough to spend the holidays with loved ones in Ontario, followed by a trip to New York City (I got home late last night).
I hadn’t been to New York in over a decade, but it was amazing to be back. Of course, when someone is in another city it is tempting to draw comparisons with your hometown, even though Calgary and New York have very obvious and important differences! In both places there is a lot of obvious wealth, but also a lot of deprivation. Both cities struggle with maintaining their infrastructure, and it often seems like city engineers and work crews are at best keeping one step ahead of major problems.
Some notable differences include the liveliness in the business districts: in Manhattan, every office tower and condo in midtown and downtown has shops and restaurants at street level. The resulting foot traffic and liveliness creates a sense of safety rather than the dead zones throughout much of downtown Calgary, where pedestrians out after 5:00 pm walk past blocks of empty lobbies and locked doors.
It was also striking how easy it is to get around. My wife and I, with an eight-year-old in tow, only used the famous yellow cabs to get to and from the airport (and once when we were late for a dinner reservation). We bought transit passes on our first day and made extensive use of them. Surprisingly, we spent more time on buses than in the subway, and found them to be clean, on time, and offering excellent coverage throughout Manhattan and beyond.
One last thought as it applies to the simmering density debate in Calgary. We don’t usually associate New York City with the concept of urban sprawl, but the city’s metropolitan area extends across four states, from Stroudsburg, PA in the west to New Haven, CT in the east, and from Poughkeepsie, NY in the north down to Asbury Park, NJ. Many of the towns and cities in this vast catchment area are full of New Yorkers who left apartments and rowhouses for single-family homes in which to raise families and escape the hustle and bustle that draws tourists like my family. As Calgary’s inner-city neighbourhoods densify, we will see similar movement to Cochrane, Chestermere, Okotoks, and beyond.
Finally, a gentle reminder about the upcoming charity casino at the Elbow River Casino on May 3 and 4 (see poster in this issue). Please sign up and support the BCA!
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